On Saturday, May 6, Oakville’s MPP Stephen Crawford joined the Oakville Crusaders Rugby Club to celebrate the $65,800 grant from the Resilient Communities Fund, from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The grant was used to help the club recover from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic by improving programs, rebuilding its volunteer base, increasing participation, and training staff. The project was completed in 2023 and gives the club the opportunity to expand the programs they offer to the surrounding communities for future years.
“The funding was made available for us for a year. We employed a lot of the funding to introduce new programming that enabled us to work through Covid and keep the club open for the community,” says Chris Tudor-Price, President of the Crusaders Rugby Club.
“We adapted a lot of our existing programs to make them more Covid friendly and compliant and then a lot of the funding went through to help us recover from Covid-19. So it helped us from the perspective of attracting new volunteers, new players, new coaches, and really recovering,”
The Crusaders Rugby Club is mostly a volunteer-run organization, with a portion of the grant money going to hiring a full-time program coordinator. The new program coordinator has granted the club the ability to dedicate much-needed time and resources to rebuilding its various programs, members, and volunteers.
“The Crusaders Rugby Club is really a part of our community. It's not just a sports organization. Rugby's a growing sport, and they (Oakville Crusaders) are the largest club in Canada, right here in Oakville,” says Oakville MPP Stephen Crawford, “Oakville is a sports town, and supporting them makes me proud to be a part of the community,”
The Resilient Communities Fund goes to support community-based organizations that deliver services and programs to Ontario that are in need of funding to recover and rebuilt resilience, sustainability and capacity.
About The Crusaders Rugby Club
The Crusaders Rugby Club was founded in 1968 and has been growing ever since. With more than 700 playing members ranging from the age of four to 74, they became the largest rugby club in Canada. The club operates a year-round program for athletes and is committed to providing various programs for all players to grow their skills both on and off the field.
On May 13th, the Senior Women’s tournament got underway at the Crusaders Rugby Club starting at 11 am. For a full list of the game for all teams, please visit the Crusaders Rugby Club schedule. The full schedule includes both home and away games, tournaments, and events and can be found here.
To celebrate the Victoria Day long weekend, the Crusaders Rugby Club is hosting a fireworks display on Sunday, May 21st at 5 pm at 2214 Ninth Line in Oakville. The bar will be open, and food will be available to purchase. Tickets are $5 dollars per person or $20 dollars per car (up to five people in a vehicle) and must be purchased online on the club's website.
About Ontario Trillium Foundation
The Ontario Trillium Foundation, an agency of the Government of Ontario, was founded in the early 1980s to help fund social service organizations in Ontario. Last year, the Ontario Trillium Foundation invested nearly $209 million dollars into over two thousand community projects and partnerships across the province. The foundation is one of Canada’s leading granting foundations and this year, the foundation is celebrating its 40 years of grantmaking in Ontario. For more information on The Ontario Trillium Foundation, you can visit their website.